It seems so crass and not very spiritual. Why not just send everyone a monthly bill? That would be much more discreet, let alone efficient.
Some time ago I attended a large and growing church here in the Indianapolis area whose handling of the “offering” seemed to reflect this point of view. There was a verbal announcement from one of the “worship leaders” informing the visitors that they did not have make an “offering” or feel obligated to do so. After all, they were “guests” of the congregation. I also noticed that the “offering” was collected near the beginning of the service before Scripture was read or a sermon was preached. I thought that rather “odd.” I was not used to that. (I will speak more to this later.)
This sort of attitude toward money and its relation to the mission of the church sadly buys into the secular values of our culture. It misses a golden opportunity to use money, one of the most powerful “gods” of our consumer culture, to demonstrate the power of the Gospel to change and transform those “gods” into something new.
First, such an approach to the “offering” has given in to one of the great “taboos” of our culture: money. A taboo is something you are prohibited from doing or talking about because it is sacred and holy. It has such power over you that you don’t dare talk about it or discuss it openly. Money is one of those taboos in our culture. In our consumer/capitalist culture, money is the ultimate measure in determining one’s worth and value. Notice how people are often more willing to talk about their sex life than how much money they make. Money is the ultimate “privacy” issue. By refusing to talk about it, we let it control us. As result churches are silent. It is treated as if it is something crass, embarrassing and unbecoming the “spiritual nature” of the church. We “put up with it” once year during the annual “stewardship” program. Raising money through an offering in church is a necessary evil we have to tolerate because “we gotta pay the light bill.” Therefore, it would be rude and inhospitable to ask our guests and visitors to pay to support the mission of the church. That would be like asking someone over to your house for dinner and then charging them admission. That would indeed be bad manners!
Second, such an approach to money and the “offering” assumes that giving money to the church is something you “have to” do. Paying your way comes with membership. Membership in any organization has certain requirements and expectations of its members. “Paying for” the services of that organization through dues or some “fee for service” program keeps the organization going and allows you to keep your membership. If you don’t pay, you can’t belong. After all, isn’t that the right and just thing to do? To pay for what your receive? After all, there is no such thing as a “free lunch” in this world, even for the church!
But as some of you have heard me say time and time again, the church is not just another organization. The church is not just another entrepreneurial franchise trying to sell a product and make a profit. What the church has “for sale” is not “for sale,” i.e. the grace of God. In the “economy” of the church, unlike the “economy” of the world, which is always threatened by scarcity and limits, there are no limits. There is always an abundance of grace. There is no such thing as scarcity. There is always “more than enough” to go around. And the grace is God is not for sale. It doesn’t have to be purchased by us. Jesus has already purchased more than enough for us by his death and resurrection. It is a gift to be received and not a commodity to be purchased. Therefore, abundance and generosity characterize the economy of the church. Everything is freely and generously given. There are no dues to be collected or services to be paid for.
The historic liturgy of our Church seeks to demonstrate this abundant and plentiful grace of God at every turn, including the offering, especially the offering! The offering is one of those very visible and public places of the service where we take the world’s understanding of money (there is never enough of it and you are always in danger of losing it and therefore you had better hold on to it as hard as you can!) and turn it up-side-down and inside-out. The offering is our public confession that because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which we have just heard again (that’s why the offering comes after the sermon and Scripture readings), we now live in a world of abundance called The Kingdom of God. In this world there is always abundance. There is always more than enough. Therefore, the “offering” is not what it appears to be to most people in this world, i.e., something to gotta pay or else! but something freely and generously given because we want to. It’s a “get to” and not a “gotta.” We’re not “giving in order to get” but freely giving ourselves away to something we love with “no strings attached.”
When you think about the offering like this, I can think of only one response: Wow!!! This is the heart of the Gospel! This is one of the most important things we do in our liturgy to show how life is now different for us as disciples of Jesus. We freely give because God freely gave!
We are now part of the new world of abundance. Therefore, the offering is nothing of which to be ashamed. It is nothing for which to apologize to our Sunday morning guests. This is one of the most dramatic things we can do in our liturgy to show our “guests” what it is like to live in this marvelous new world of the Kingdom of God. Unlike the world from which they came, here is a world where there is always more than enough to go around, so much so that we can dare to give it a way in this selfless act of love called “The Offering.”
Why would anyone ever want to give this up and resort to “sending out a monthly bill” that just reinforces the world’s skepticism about the church in the first place, that we are just one more institution on the make? Why would anyone want to hide this joyous act giving from a visitor? Only a fool.
Christ Church, the Lutheran Church of Zionsville
Rev. Dr. Steven E. Albertin (Click to E-mail)
